Clinical labs can help combat overuse of antibiotics by developing systems with automatic alerts for clinicians "on resistant bugs, perhaps even checking themselves whether a patient was prescribed an active drug," says Bradley Frazee, attending physician at the Alameda Health System Highland Hospital. Additionally, rapid molecular tests for viruses including the flu, especially at the point of care, could be significant in helping to combat antibiotic overuse.

A study presented at a meeting of the Association for the Study of Liver Diseases showed elevated hepatitis C reinfection rates among people who inject drugs after treatment with direct-acting antivirals. The study of data from 1.7 million people found a reinfection rate of 3.1 per 100 person-years among people who inject drugs, compared with 1.4 for people with a history of injection drug use and 0.3 among people who had not used injection drugs.

Eloctate, or coagulation factor [(recombinant), Fc fusion protein], was associated with improvements in annualized bleeding rates over four years, as was Alprolix, or coagulation factor IX [(recombinant), Fc fusion protein]. Eloctate is indicated for the treatment of hemophilia A; Alprolix is indicated for the treatment of hemophilia B. The findings come from two extension studies and were presented at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting.

Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved Aplidin, or plitidepsin, combined with dexamethasone, to treat patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. PharmaMar and Specialised Therapeutics Asia have a licensing deal to commercialize Aplidin in Australia, New Zealand and a dozen Asian nations.

A review in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy found that systemic lupus erythematosus is associated with increased risk of 16 types of cancer, including some hematopoietic and lymphatic cancers. The analysis of data from 24 studies indicated a higher risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma.

A $300 million manufacturing and research and development facility has been opened by Siemens Healthineers at its East Walpole campus in Massachusetts. The facility, which will manufacture laboratory diagnostic devices, has created over 275 jobs as of December and is expected to employ 700 new workers by 2026.

Grail -- a Menlo Park, Calif.-based cancer testing startup backed by high-profile investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates -- could launch an initial public offering in the US as early as next year, depending on stock market conditions, sources say. Grail is developing a test for early detection of a wide range of cancers and had considered a Hong Kong listing.